Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CU-RI-OS'I-TY, n. [L. curiositas. See Curious.]

1. A strong desire to see something novel, or to discover something unknown, either by research or inquiry; a desire to gratify the senses with a sight of what is new or unusual, or to gratify the mind with new discoveries; inquisitiveness. A man's curiosity leads him to view the ruins of Balbec, to investigate the origin of Homer, to discover the component parts of a mineral, or the motives of another's actions. – Shak.
2. Nicety; delicacy.
3. Accuracy; exactness; nice performance; curiousness; as, the curiosity of workmanship. – Ray.
4. A nice experiment; a thing unusual or worthy of curiosity. There hath been practiced a curiosity, to set a tree on the north side of a wall, and at a little hight, to draw it through the wall, &c. – Bacon.
5. An object of curiosity; that which excites a desire of seeing, or deserves to be seen, as novel and extraordinary. We took a ramble together to see the curiosities of this great town. – Addison. [The first and the last senses are chiefly used.]